A/N: Here is another flashback chapter. I hope you guys enjoy.
Ava POV Enchanted Forest
Ahh. The morning air is refreshing as I walk through the village. I helped the muffin man get the bakery ready, but he told me to take the rest of the day off. I think he is scared though. Not of me, but of the person I spend a great deal of time with. I take care of Baelfire most of the time, and everyone in town is terrified of his father. Ever since he became The Dark One people have been treating him and Bae differently. Rumple is extremely protective of Bae, so if any little thing happens to the boy it is blown way out of proportion.
I am on my way to the little hut on the outskirts of town with a basket filled with bread loaves. The streets are bustling with people peddling their goods. I look farther up the road and see a cart, being pulled by a donkey, filled with cages of chickens. A man pulls the donkey, leading it down the road. Suddenly, a boy follows a ball into the path of the donkey driven cart. The man stops the donkey from walking over the boy. The abrupt stop causes a basket to fall to the ground.
"Hey!" The man yells at the boy. He does not say anything to the man. He just gets up and quickly tries to get out of the way. "Hey!" I get closer and realize who the boy is, Baelfire. "What are you doing in the middle of the road, boy?" I start to run towards the boy. I hope to get there and diffuse the situation before Rumple even knows what has happened.
"I'm sorry. I-I" I walk up next to Bae and pull him into a hug. I look to the man and he suddenly realizes whom he is talking to. I hate that look.
"Hey, I know you." The man says to the boy. Terror envelops his face as he holds his hands out, hoping it would keep us from calling The Dark One. I do the same with my free hand. My other arm is around Bae.
"It is fine, sir. Everything is fine." His eyes meet mine.
"You want a chicken or some eggs?" He asks me frantically.
"It is okay." I say as I shake my head. "We should probably just-" I can tell that he is here before I finish my words, but he decides to interrupt me.
"What's going on?" I guess I was too slow. I hope nothing bad happens to this man. To be honest, it was Bea who went out in front of the cart. I pull Bae tighter into me.
"It's nothing." The man tries to say. "It was my fault. I wasn't looking where I was going." The tension is palpable. "But, he says he's fine." Bae pulls away from me and walks around me, towards Rumple.
"I'm fine Papa." The boy tries to say. The boy does not want to cause any trouble. "Really."
"Are you sure, Bae?" He asks his son.
"Yes. I'm fine." The boy answers. There was a short pause and I keep hoping Rumple chooses not to act out today.
"Well, I suppose it won't happen again." Rumple says to the man.
"It won't." Bae answers quickly.
"No." The cart driver answers, shaking his head. "No."
"What's that?" Rumple asks. I am confused, so I turn around and see that Rumple is pointing down towards Bae's knee. Oh no. It seems that when Bae tripped in front of the cart he skinned his knee, and it is currently bleeding. How had I not noticed that before?
"It's nothing." Bae says, stepping away from Rumple. I walk over and turn Bae towards me. I quickly glare at Rumple before I get a better look at Bae's injury.
"It does not look severe." I say.
"See, it's nothing." The cart driver tried to defend himself once again. He should have just stayed quiet.
"A ta ta ta ta." Rumple says with his hand up, making the man stop and pay attention. "Don't bother." A purple light is emitted from his palm.
"Stop this." I say to Rumple. He does not even look to me. "Stop this, please." But it was too late the man was engulfed in a dark purple smoke. That smoke clears and it reveals that the man has been turned into a snail. I sigh in frustration and turn away as Rumple walks toward the poor man turned creature.
"No, Papa. No" Bae tries to stop him. "Please, Papa. Don't." Rumple continues on his path towards the snail. "No, Papa!" Still no answer from his father. "Papa!" A sickening squishing sound is heard, and the townsfolk gathered around gasp and walk or run away as fast as they can. Soon, I feel Bae run into me and hug me from the side. I turn towards the boy and engulf him in a hug. I turn my head to look at The Dark One. He looks back at me with little to no emotion.
"Alright, Bae. Let us go home and check out that knee of yours." I say as I rub his back. I lead him back to Rumple and Bae's hut. We walk in and I greet Anora. She cleans up the small area and does some of the other chores for Rumple. Rumple is the next one to address her as I set the basket of bread, which I brought with me, on the table that Bae was now sitting at.
"Thank you, Anora. You can fetch us supper now, dearie." He tells her. She does as he asks of her and leaves the hut. Rumple joins us at the table. I go around to Bae's side of the table and wait for him to show me his injury. He stands from his seat and steps on the chair so I can see his knee clearer. He pulls his pant leg up and out of the way.
"It is just a couple scrapes." I say as I go get a salve to help it heal. As I come back with the salve Bae starts to voice his concerns with his father about his actions today.
"You killed that man." The boy says before wincing at the sting of the salve.
"Well, you were hurt." I turn away and put the salve back in the cabinet that I got it from. "Speaking of which." I turn around and he is using magic to heal the wound on Bae's. Frustration takes over. Why do I even try? But something happens that I did not expect.
"No." Bae pushes his father's hand away. "I don't want magic." Rumple looks a bit shocked. "It's just a scrape, and Ava already started treating it." He puts his pant leg down and sits down on the bench.
"This will heal it." Rumple insists, his hand still glowing purple with his magic.
"So can salve and bandages." I pipe up. He looks to me and the purple glow disappears.
"Very well." He says. The three of us sit at the table and Bae continues to talk to Rumple about how he has changed.
"You're different now." The boy starts. "You see it don't you?" Rumple does not say anything. "You hurt people all the time. Even Ava, once." I look away and bring my hand up to my right cheek. There has only been one time that he has physically hurt me. It was a surprise, really. It was the day after he became The Dark One. I guess something I said did not sit right with him, so he hit me. I was shocked at the time, but it never deterred me from speaking my mind with him.
"That was a mistake, Bae. And I have apologized many times for that." It is true. On a daily basis he says he did not mean to do what he did. "And I created a truce in the Ogre's War. I walked into the field of battle and I made it stop." That was one of the things I was very happy for. My living siblings were returned to me, and I felt like someone had brought me back to life. "I led the children home. Surely a man who saved a thousand lives-"
"A man who saved a thousand lives could be done with it." Bae interrupts. "You can stop doing things."
"I can't." Rumple says. I rub my face in frustration. Then my forehead rests in the palms of my hands, elbows resting on the table in front of me. "I need more power." Why? "So I can protect you." The man says as he points to his son. "And her." He adds, pointing to me.
"We wouldn't need protecting if you didn't have power." The boy says. He has a point.
"Well, I can't get rid of it." Rumple defends.
"Have you tried?" I ask him. He looks at me and his expression softens a bit.
"Tried." He says in almost a whisper. I assume he was trying to think about my question. He presents The Dark One's dagger to the both of us. "Someone kills me with this, then they gain the power." I stare at the horrible weapon that changed the man in front of me, his name etched on the blade. "Now you know that. Both of you do." It is true. "Is that what you want?"
"That's not what we want." I say quickly.
"I just think there might be other ways to get rid of the power." Bae adds. Suddenly the door of the hut opens and Anora walks back in with a hot pot in her hands. "Have you looked for-" All of us look towards the girl. We stop talking and Rumple hides the dagger away in his cloak.
"Well, you look for other ways, Bae." Rumple says as Anora walks around the table to set up the pot to serve us. "But, don't get your hopes up." He shoos the girl away as I stand up and begin to distribute the food in the pot to three bowls.
"Papa?" Bae starts. "If I find a way for you to get rid of the power, a way that doesn't kill you or hurt us," The boy gestures to himself and I. "Would you do it?" I set a bowl of the stew in front of Rumple as he answers.
"It's not possible."
"That's not an answer to his question, Rumple." I say sternly. "The question was: 'would you do it' not 'is it possible'." I set a second bowl of the stew in front of the boy.
"Don't you miss how it was?" Bae adds.
"Are you really that unhappy, Bae?" I can tell he is becoming just as frustrated as the boy and I are. Good. I set my bowl down and move the pot before sitting next to the boy on his side of the table. "I can conjure anything you desire." Is that supposed to be impressive? We just want it to be the way it was. We do not want things. We want Rumple back the way he was. "Name it." He says to Bae. "What do you want?"
"I want my father." The boy answers simply. I want the same thing. The man who was able to help me through the many losses of my life. The man who was able to help me back to my feet. The man who raised his son by himself. The man who tried hard to live a good life even though everyone believed him a coward. I want the coward back. The humble man who just wished to live his life and raise his son.
"All I want is your happiness, Bae." That might be true, but it does not seem that way. "If you find a way, I'll do it." He finally answers the boy's original question. A smile makes it to my face as I begin to eat the stew in front of me.
"Good." Bae says. The boy then holds out his hand towards his father. Rumple reaches across the table and shakes the boy's hand. "A deal is struck."
"Struck." Rumple agrees. We all finish our stew and I leave to make sure that my siblings are taken care of. The next day, I decide to bring my siblings into the woods to play. They brought wooden swords and picked up some sticks. The boys began to spar with each other. Moraine and I sit on the hill and watch the boys play. Suddenly, the boys scatter.
"Where are they going?" I ask.
"I think Baelfire scared them off." Moraine answers.
"What?" I look down the hill and see the boy sitting by himself. He looks so deflated. "Hmm." I look around and notice that Rumple is walking up the hill towards a small hut there. "Moraine, go talk to him. I will be right back." She nods and heads toward the boy. I follow Rumple towards the hut. I see him enter and exit quickly. He stops when he sees me standing before him. "What were you doing in there?" He does not answer me. I look him over. I see dark stains on his boots with a reddish hue. "Who's dwelling is that?" I am becoming frantic and upset.
"She heard us talking about the dagger." He answers. Oh my Gods. I step back, trying to comprehend this information. "I had to." I try to catch my breath before speaking.
"How could you?" I am saddened by his actions. "It is not like she is able to tell anyone. She could not speak, Rumple." I shake my head and turn to walk away. He tries to say something else, but I stop and turn to interrupt him. "No! No excuses!" I point at him. I turn and walk away again. As I get closer to Bae and Moraine I speak up. "Moraine." I call out. She turns to me. "It is time to go home."
"Is something wrong?" She asks me.
"Yes, but it is none of your concern." I answer her.
"What's wrong?" Bae asks me. I look to the boy with sad eyes.
"Ask your father, Bae." And with that I walk away, following Moraine back to our home. Later that night a frantic knock is heard on the door.
"Ava!" Why is Rumple here? "Ava! I need your help!" I slowly walk towards the door to answer it. No. I am done with him. There is no saving the man behind The Dark One. I stop in my tracks and say nothing. If you are wondering why he is not bursting through the door, it is because we made an agreement that he would respect my privacy, especially if I did not want to see him. "Please! I know you are right on the other side of this door. Bae's gone, and I need to get him back!" That made me perk up, but the anger in me was so blinding.
"Then why do you not just leave and go find him, oh powerful Dark One?" I ask mockingly. He is The Dark One. He should be able to find Bae by himself. Why would he need my help? There is a long pause before I hear him sob. Is he playing me? Is he trying to get me to open the door? I have not heard him cry in a long time. It was even a rare occurrence before he became The Dark One. The sound was able to pull tears to my eyes, but I cannot back down. I cannot give in. I need to stand by my word.
"I'm so sorry, Ava." He says. "I'm so sorry." His whimpering continues but it gets gradually farther away. He is finally gone when I sink to the ground and begin to sob and let out my emotions. What if something actually happened to Baelfire? What could possibly take Bae so far away that Rumple could not get him back? I stay awake until morning. My siblings, including Moraine, crowd around me. They bombard me with questions, but I do not answer. Their presence just tells me that it is morning.
I stand up and rush out the door. I have to make sure they are okay. I have to make sure that Bae is safe. I run to their hut on the outskirts of town. I stop outside their door and notice the silence. They should be up and moving at this time. The silence is eerie. I hold my hand out, hovering over the door handle. I do not want to see what I now know is on the other side of this door, that there is no one there, that both of them have left me, that I am on my own once again. Sure I have my brothers and sister, but Rumple and Bae grounded me when I felt like I could not do something. They were support, and now I do not know if they will ever come back in my life.
I open the door and it is exactly what I thought. They are gone. Why did I not open the door last night? Rumple always helped me when I needed it. Why did I not help him when he needed me? I drop to my knees and sob into my hands. I do not know how long I sat there before I feel a hand on my shoulder. I look up and notice The Muffin Man, my boss, standing there with a look of pity on his face. My siblings must have told him about my odd behavior this morning. He helps me to my feet and pulls me into a hug. I continue to shed tears as I try to bury myself in his chest. How am I going to pull myself together, now?
A/N: I hope you guys liked this chapter. Let me know what you think of the story so far.
